A Town of Needham zoning working group voted to recommend a set of lot-coverage formulas to the Planning Board on a motion approved during its meeting.

Lee, who is drafting the proposed zoning articles, had shared a spreadsheet of proposed coverage percentages that reduce maximum building footprints across lot-size bands. Members discussed practical effects on common 10,000-square-foot lots, the treatment of garage area, and whether to add a minimum building-footprint floor (for example, 2,500 square feet) to avoid overly constraining typical lots.

The recommendation was put forward as a motion and seconded; the working group then took a roll-call-style vote. According to the discussion, Joe voted “Aye,” Oscar voted “Aye,” Paul voted “Aye,” Ed voted “Aye,” Rob voted “No,” and the chair recorded an additional aye. The motion passed, and the group agreed to forward the recommended lot-coverage formulas to the Planning Board for inclusion on the warrant.

Members framed the coverage decision as one piece of a broader package of zoning changes. The group confirmed it will present three alternative floor-area-ratio (FAR) equations to the larger committee rather than selecting a single FAR option at this meeting, and that the Planning Board and Town Meeting will make the final choice.

Speakers emphasized that the lot-coverage recommendation is intended to limit overly wide single-story additions while preserving flexibility for reasonable house footprints. The working group also agreed to send an explanatory email to the wider committee describing the recommendation and the remaining open issues.

Next steps: the Planning Board will receive the working group’s recommendation and include the lot-coverage proposal among the warrant materials for the special Town Meeting. The working group scheduled a follow-up meeting focused on FAR and attic-counting definitions prior to finalizing materials for the packet.